


One Foot in Sea, One on Shore

by semele



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:57:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/827170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semele/pseuds/semele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alaric remembers Elena's laughter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Foot in Sea, One on Shore

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Season Four Elena Gilbert Appreciation Week.](http://morallydubiousprincess.tumblr.com/post/50936787087/hello-elena-lovers-and-stans-this-is-the-first) Day One: Best Elena’s smile/happy moment

_Serve God, love me and mend  
This is not the end  
Lived unbruised, we are friends  
And I'm sorry  
I'm sorry_

_Sigh no more, no more  
One foot in sea, one on shore  
My heart was never pure  
You know me  
You know me _

Mumford and Sons, _Sigh No More_

Alaric remembers Elena's laughter.

It's what surprised him the most during the summer he spent with the Gilberts: Elena's ability to laugh among ruins, her special gift to push away the pain and smile the most genuine of smiles.

“You're the strongest person I know,” he told her when they were training, because “I'd drink myself into oblivion if I were you” didn't seem quite pedagogical even for him. 

(Never mind that she actually saw him almost drink himself into oblivion for less, at least twice a week. He really should've gotten his shit together.)

“How does she even put up with all of us?” he might've said to Damon one night (he's a bit fuzzy on details). “This girl is fucking indestructible.”

But Damon didn't take the bait, and Ric used to think that it was because he'd struck a nerve.

Now he's eating a burger right next to his own grave, ridiculously stuck between here and there, and he can't help but think that maybe back Damon knew more than he ever gave him credit for.

Elena laughs as she throws food at Jeremy, and her laughter sounds so familiar it makes Ric want to settle down, to sit down and relax, maybe even laugh himself. It's a wonderful sound, happy and full of life, and he could listen to it forever: Elena Gilbert laughing for herself. 

(Elena Gilbert laughing for them.)

He tries to tune out the things he knows about her now, tells himself it's an invasion of privacy, and that she never wanted him to see her smile drop sometimes when she's sure she's alone. He can block the thoughts of her blank face in a mirror as long as he doesn't look at Jeremy, who could've seen those moments too, Alaric isn't sure. There are things they never talk about on the other side.

Elena's grip on his hand is a bit too tight, and Alaric has a moment of panic. He wants to keep her smile up no matter what, but he doesn't know what to do when he never had to fight for it. All he knows is that it's important to look straight at her. Just look at her, he reminds himself as he takes a deep breath, at her and only at her.

“Hey, no,” he hears Jeremy say. “No tears."


End file.
